Computing and the net | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/computingandthenet
Latest news and features from theguardian.com, the world's leading liberal voiceen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2015Sun, 02 Aug 2015 18:48:01 GMT2015-08-02T18:48:01Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2015The Guardianhttp://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttp://www.theguardian.com
The Four-Dimensional Human review – where cyberspace and meatspace collidehttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/27/four-dimensional-human-review--laurence-scott
Laurence Scott’s riffs on our new, endlessly connected world tease out the ways in which the internet is altering our sense of ourselves<p>“We shape our tools,” said <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jul/24/marshall-mcluhan-media-john-naughton" title="">Marshall McLuhan</a>, “and afterwards they shape us.” The most powerful tool that humankind has invented in the past half century is the internet, and we are still trying to figure out what it is doing to us. This is no easy task, and it’s very much work in progress because we are still only in the early days of the transformation of our communications environment wrought by the net. It took us the best part of 400 years to understand how the last such revolution – the one triggered by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jan/27/internet.pressandpublishing" title="">Gutenberg</a> – would play out, and the internet has only been a fixture in our daily lives since 1993, which in the long view of history is only the blink of an eye.</p><p>Our problem is not that we are short of information about this new force in our lives. On the contrary, we are awash with the stuff. It’s just that we have no idea what it all means. In that sense, we are in the state immortalised by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2013/mar/25/manuel-castells-political-cyberspace-video" title="">Manuel Castells</a> as that of “informed bewilderment”. Sure, we have some idea about what digital technology means for our economies and our daily lives. But what does it mean for <em>us</em>? What happens to our humanity in a digital age?</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/27/four-dimensional-human-review--laurence-scott">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netTechnologyInternetBooksCultureMon, 27 Jul 2015 05:30:05 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/27/four-dimensional-human-review--laurence-scottPhotograph: BBCGeorge Orwell, one of the first novelists to write about our technologically determined future.Photograph: /AlamyNew York subway riders immersed in their electronic devices. Photograph: AlamyPhotograph: /AlamyNew York subway riders immersed in their electronic devices. Photograph: AlamyJohn Naughton2015-07-27T05:30:05ZGoing for a song: the hidden history of music piracyhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/07/stephen-witt-how-music-got-free-music-piracy-filesharing
<p>Starting in the late 90s, illegal filesharing gradually brought the music industry to its knees. In these exclusive extracts from his compelling new book, Stephen Witt explains how – and reveals the story of ‘Oink’, the unassuming student who became Britain’s most notorious filesharer</p><ul><li><a href="http://gu.com/p/49g3q/stw">Stephen Witt interview: ‘Music piracy is illegal – but morally, is it wrong?’ </a><br></li></ul><p>I am a member of the pirate generation. When I arrived at college in 1997, I had never heard of an MP3. By the end of my first term, I had filled my 2GB hard drive with hundreds of bootlegged songs. By graduation, I had six 20GB drives, all full. By 2005, when I moved to New York, I had collected 1,500GB of music, nearly 15,000 albums worth. It took an hour just to cue up my library, and if you ordered the songs alphabetically by artist, you’d have to listen for a year and a half to get from Abba to ZZ Top.</p><p>I pirated on an industrial scale, but told no one. It was an easy secret to keep. You never saw me at the record store and I didn’t DJ parties. The files were procured on chat channels and through Napster and BitTorrent; I haven’t purchased an album with my own money since the turn of the millennium. The vinyl collectors of old had filled whole basements with dusty album jackets, but my digital collection could fit in a shoebox.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/07/stephen-witt-how-music-got-free-music-piracy-filesharing">Continue reading...</a>MusicFilesharingComputing and the netBooksMusicMusic industryInternetComputingTechnologyCultureDigital music and audioSun, 07 Jun 2015 06:00:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/07/stephen-witt-how-music-got-free-music-piracy-filesharingPhotograph: screen grabOink: ‘a carefully curated digital archive with a fanatical emphasis on high-fidelity encodings’.Photograph: screen grabOink: ‘a carefully curated digital archive with a fanatical emphasis on high-fidelity encodings’.Photograph: ObserverFilesharing in numbers.Photograph: ObserverFilesharing in numbers.Photograph: Graphic: Ellen WishartPhotograph: Graphic: Ellen WishartStephen Witt2015-06-07T06:00:04ZDigital Gold: The Untold Story of Bitcoin review – where there’s geeks there’s brasshttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/02/digital-gold-untold-story-of-bitcoin-review-nathaniel-popper-cryptocurrency
This entertaining history of bitcoin traces the cryptocurrency’s nerdy origins and vast potential<p>The history of money goes back a long way – at least to 2000 BC– and one way of studying the evolution of human societies (and indeed of entire empires) is to follow the money that they used. Coins evolved into banknotes which evolved into cheques which evolved into credit and debit cards, which is more or less where we are now. The big question is what happens next.</p><p>In one sense the answer is obvious: money has to all intents and purposes metamorphosed into digital bits. When you wave your new contactless debit card (or, soon, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/31/apple-pay-2015-britain-contactless-mobile-payments-services" title="">your iPhone 6</a>) over a retailer’s card-reader, what you’re really doing is instructing a computer to reduce a number stored in a ledger on your bank’s hard drive and increase a number stored on the retailer’s bank’s ledger by a corresponding amount. No physical cash has changed hands: all that’s happened is a transfer of digital information.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/02/digital-gold-untold-story-of-bitcoin-review-nathaniel-popper-cryptocurrency">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netEconomicsBitcoinCryptocurrenciesCurrenciesBooksMoneyE-commerceInternetTechnologyCultureEconomicsTue, 02 Jun 2015 05:30:09 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/02/digital-gold-untold-story-of-bitcoin-review-nathaniel-popper-cryptocurrencyPhotograph: AlamyBitcoin is not only accepted online, but in more forward-thinking real-world venues. Photograph: AlamyPhotograph: AlamyBitcoin is not only accepted online, but in more forward-thinking real-world venues. Photograph: AlamyJohn Naughton2015-06-02T05:30:09ZHow to Fly a Horse review: the man who brought us the internet of things presents a new way to look at geniushttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/06/kevin-ashton-internet-of-things-new-book-review-how-to-fly-a-horse
Kevin Ashton examines the process of creativity and says it’s about tenacity as much as talent<p>“To create is as human as flying is to a bird. It is not something that only a rare few people do – it’s an instinct we all have,” Kevin Ashton says. And he should know. For in begetting the term “the internet of things”, the British technologist created not only a product, but a concept that is changing the way we live.</p><p>It was a transformative notion born of a mundane necessity. In the late 1990s, Ashton was working for Procter &amp; Gamble, bringing a new lipstick to market. But supermarket shelves earmarked for the product were frequently empty. The answer, he concluded, was to devise a way to remotely track the numbers of the cosmetic on display.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/06/kevin-ashton-internet-of-things-new-book-review-how-to-fly-a-horse">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netBooksCultureScienceTechnologyFri, 06 Feb 2015 07:00:05 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/06/kevin-ashton-internet-of-things-new-book-review-how-to-fly-a-horsePhotograph: Frank Baron/GuardianJames Dyson is an excellent example of how tenacity is as important as talent. Photograph: Frank Baron for the GuardianPhotograph: Frank Baron/GuardianJames Dyson is an excellent example of how tenacity is as important as talent. Photograph: Frank Baron for the GuardianNicola Davis2015-02-06T07:00:05ZThe Internet Is Not the Answer review – how the digital dream turned sourhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/01/internet-is-not-the-answer-review-andrew-keen
Andrew Keen’s pleasingly incisive study argues that, far from being a democratising force in society, the internet has only amplified global inequities<p>The internet that we use today was switched on in January 1983, and for its first 10 years was almost exclusively the preserve of academic researchers, which meant that cyberspace evolved as a parallel, utopian universe in which the norms of “meatspace” (John Perry Barlow’s term for the real, physical world) did not apply. In fact, for most of the first two decades, the real world remained blissfully unaware of the existence of the virtual one.</p><p>And then Tim Berners-Lee invented the web, and in 1993 Marc Andreessen released Mosaic, the first graphical browser, and suddenly the real world realised what the internet was and, more importantly, what it could do. What happened next was, with hindsight, predictable, though relatively few people spotted it at the time. It was later summed up by John Doerr, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, as “the greatest legal accumulation of wealth in history”. More succinctly you could say that what happened was that Wall Street moved west.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/01/internet-is-not-the-answer-review-andrew-keen">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netBooksSocietyEconomicsComputingTechnologySocietyCultureSun, 01 Feb 2015 07:00:06 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/01/internet-is-not-the-answer-review-andrew-keenPhotograph: /AlamyA view across Silicon Valley, California: has the effect of the internet merely been to concentrate more wealth in the hands of a few companies and individuals? Photograph: AlamyPhotograph: /AlamyA view across Silicon Valley, California: has the effect of the internet merely been to concentrate more wealth in the hands of a few companies and individuals? Photograph: AlamyJohn Naughton2015-02-01T07:00:06ZSteven Poole on The Internet Is Not the Answer – reviewhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/28/the-internet-is-not-the-answer-andrew-keen-review
The internet was privatised and now we are all Google’s unpaid serfs, according to Andrew Keen’s polemic. Bring on democracy<p>The internet is not the answer. But who said it was? And hang on, what was the question again? The internet is a good answer to a question like “What do we call the global network of computer networks?”, but a bad response to “What would you like to drink?” The internet is a very good answer, in the sense of “approach or solution”, to the problem of sending a written message very quickly to someone on the other side of the world, but a poor one to the problem of constructing a better society.</p><p>Or is it? For Andrew Keen, noted gadfly of the tech world, is in this sardonic treatise concentrating his rhetorical fire on a class of people who really do think that the internet is the answer to all our current problems: not only in, say, getting a taxi or a sex partner, but also in education and politics. These are the techno-utopians of Silicon Valley, the wealthy or wannabe-wealthy libertarians with a fetish for “disruption”. It is to their brand of what another critic, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/evgeny-morozov">Evgeny Morozov</a>, calls “solutionism” that Keen is eager to retort in the negative.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/28/the-internet-is-not-the-answer-andrew-keen-review">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netBooksCultureInternetTechnologyWed, 28 Jan 2015 07:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/28/the-internet-is-not-the-answer-andrew-keen-reviewPhotograph: Steve Rhodes/Demotix/CorbisA Google bus is hijacked by protesters in San Francisco earlier this month. Photograph: Steve Rhodes/Demotix/CorbisPhotograph: Steve Rhodes/Demotix/CorbisA Google bus is hijacked by protesters in San Francisco earlier this month. Photograph: Steve Rhodes/Demotix/CorbisSteven Poole2015-01-28T07:30:00ZHow to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery review – Kevin Ashton’s recipe for successhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/25/how-to-fly-a-horse-review-kevin-ashton-secret-history-of-creation-invention-and-discovery
Tech pioneer Kevin Ashton argues that it is hard work, not genius, that’s responsible for most technological innovations<p>In the first few days of 2015, the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/06/samsung-pledges-over-100bn-to-make-an-open-internet-of-things-finally-happen" title="">CEO of Samsung promised</a> that the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/internet-of-things" title="">Internet of Things</a> – where everything is connected to the internet – was coming. That there really will be a day where a fridge can detect what we’re running low on and order it for us online. A great idea… except <a href="http://kevinjashton.com" title="">Kevin Ashton</a> was proposing the internet of things in 1999, which meant the British tech pioneer swiftly became something of a superhero for the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/ted" title="">TED</a> set. He still is: as he admits in his preface, his talks end up overrunning by hours as excitable wannabe tech startups bombard him with questions attempting to find out the secret of creative success.</p><p><em>How to Fly a Horse</em> answers them pretty succinctly. For Ashton, there is no secret, only hard work – like the men who built the first US fighter jet in 143 days. There is no such thing as a genius – in fact Ashton believes they do not exist. And for him, there is no eureka moment either – most, if not all, inventions and discoveries have come from a process of refinement or inheritance. Ashton notes that James Dyson built 5,126 prototypes over five years before creating a cyclone-based vacuum cleaner that actually worked.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/25/how-to-fly-a-horse-review-kevin-ashton-secret-history-of-creation-invention-and-discovery">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netTechnologyBooksSocietyCultureInternet of thingsInternetSun, 25 Jan 2015 12:30:08 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/25/how-to-fly-a-horse-review-kevin-ashton-secret-history-of-creation-invention-and-discoveryPhotograph: Richard Saker/Richard SakerDedication’s what you need: James Dyson made 5,126 prototypes while creating his famous vacuum cleaner. Photograph: Richard SakerPhotograph: Richard Saker/Richard SakerDedication’s what you need: James Dyson made 5,126 prototypes while creating his famous vacuum cleaner. Photograph: Richard SakerBen East2015-01-25T12:30:08ZMarissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo review – the failing giant and the unlikely geekhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/05/marissa-mayer-and-fight-to-save-yahoo-review
Why Marissa Mayer jumped ship from Google – and how she changed a ‘pathologically relaxed’ company<p>Of all the western world’s internet giants (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft), Yahoo has had the most chequered history. It was founded in 1994 by two Stanford graduate students, Jerry Yang and David Filo, as “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web”, which was basically a hierarchically organised, human-curated directory of websites. After a few months and a frantic search through dictionaries, the founders renamed it Yahoo.</p><p>It grew rapidly in the late 1990s, riding the crest of the first internet boom and metamorphosing into a “portal” – a gateway to the web. By 1999, Yahoo had 4,000 employees, 250 million users and $590m in annual revenues – much of it from advertising by dotcom firms. In March 2000 its market cap peaked at $128bn.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/05/marissa-mayer-and-fight-to-save-yahoo-review">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netMarissa MayerBiographyBusiness and financeBooksCultureYahooInternetTechnologyMon, 05 Jan 2015 09:00:12 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/05/marissa-mayer-and-fight-to-save-yahoo-reviewPhotograph: Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesMarissa Mayer delivers a keynote address at technology trade show CES in Las Vegas in January 2014. Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesMarissa Mayer delivers a keynote address at technology trade show CES in Las Vegas in January 2014. Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesJohn Naughton2015-01-05T09:00:12ZSir Tim Berners-Lee: the people who watch us should be watched themselves - videohttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2014/dec/11/tim-berners-lee-people-watch-us-should-be-watched-video
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, says there needs to be a change on the internet so that "the people who watch us are watched themselves". Berners-Lee says it is important law enforcement agencies are able to monitor the internet because of the level of cyber crime, but mechanisms need to be built to hold them accountable <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2014/dec/11/tim-berners-lee-people-watch-us-should-be-watched-video">Continue reading...</a>InternetComputing and the netTim Berners-LeeScienceThu, 11 Dec 2014 16:48:18 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2014/dec/11/tim-berners-lee-people-watch-us-should-be-watched-videoGuardian Staff2014-12-11T16:48:18ZThe Innovators by Walter Isaacson review – a lucid, thrilling and amusing history of the digital agehttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/20/the-innovators-walter-isaacson-review-inventors-hackers-geniuses-geeks-digital-revolution-internet
The creation of the networked world, conjured up by a group of nerds, wonks and hippies, is the defining story of our era<p>Revolutions usually leave ancient institutions tottering, societies shaken, the streets awash with blood. But what Walter Isaacson calls the “digital revolution” has kept its promise to liberate mankind. Enrichment for the few has been balanced by empowerment for the rest of us, and we can all – as the enraptured Isaacson says – enjoy a “sublime user experience” when we turn on our computers. Wikipedia gives us access to a global mind; on social media we can chat with friends we may never meet and who might not actually exist; blogs “democratise public discourse” by giving a voice to those who were once condemned to mute anonymity. Has heaven really come down to our wired-up, interconnected Earth?</p><p>What Isaacson sees as an eruption of communal creativity began with two boldly irreligious experiments: an attempt to manufacture life scientifically, followed by a scheme for a machine that could think. After <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/11/100-best-novels-frankenstein-mary-shelley" title="">Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein</a> stitched together his monster, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/aug/14/books.guardianreview" title="">Byron’s bluestocking daughter Ada Lovelace</a> devised an “analytical engine” that could numerically replicate the “changes of mutual relationship” that occurred in God’s creation. Unlike Shelley’s mad scientist, Lovelace stopped short of challenging the official creator: her apparatus had “no pretension to originate anything”.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/20/the-innovators-walter-isaacson-review-inventors-hackers-geniuses-geeks-digital-revolution-internet">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netTechnologyBill GatesSteve JobsTim Berners-LeeAlan TuringBooksInternetComputingCultureMon, 20 Oct 2014 08:00:16 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/20/the-innovators-walter-isaacson-review-inventors-hackers-geniuses-geeks-digital-revolution-internetPhotograph: /Andrew Brusso/Corbis‘Averse to personal aggrandisement’: Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web. Photograph: Andrew Brusso/CorbisPhotograph: /Andrew Brusso/Corbis‘Averse to personal aggrandisement’: Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web. Photograph: Andrew Brusso/CorbisPeter Conrad2014-10-20T08:00:16ZHate Crimes in Cyberspace by Danielle Keats Citron review – the internet is a brutal placehttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/26/hate-crimes-in-cyberspace-danielle-keats-citron-review
As the recent leaked photos of celebrities indicate, online harassment is a real and worsening problem, and the main target is women. How should we deal with it?<br /><p>Hell, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/11/jeanpaulsartre" title="">Jean-Paul Sartre</a> famously wrote, in his&nbsp;play <em>No Exit</em>, is other people. There sometimes seems to be a river of hate on the internet, flowing steadily through different social media; people are often hurt, and there is no obvious end to it. In this book, Danielle Citron, an American law professor, proposes, with quiet authority, how we, as digital citizens, law-makers, internet intermediaries and&nbsp;educators, can make a change.</p><p>Just weeks ago, a hacker leaked nude photographs, stored online, of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and other famous women; images that were then&nbsp;shared again and again. This week Emma Watson (pictured) has been targeted by hackers in a &quot;nude photos hoax&quot;. Citron describes how certain groups – women are her main focus – are&nbsp;the principal victims. &quot;Anna Mayer&quot;, one of her cases, blogged about her life, and weight issues, in graduate school, only for the blog to be used against her by other posters in the most &quot;gruesome&quot; of ways, insulting her sexually and harming her employment prospects. As&nbsp;Citron writes, her case was &quot;a classic example of cyber harassment&quot;, which is understood as a &quot;course of conduct&quot; rather than one incident intended to&nbsp;cause distress. Cyberstalking is defined more narrowly still: it would cause a reasonable person to fear for her or his safety.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/26/hate-crimes-in-cyberspace-danielle-keats-citron-review">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netTechnologySocietyBooksCultureFri, 26 Sep 2014 10:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/26/hate-crimes-in-cyberspace-danielle-keats-citron-reviewChristopher Polk/Getty ImagesEmma Watson has been targeted in what appears to be a cyber-harassment hoax. Photograph: Christopher Polk/Getty ImagesChristopher Polk/Getty ImagesEmma Watson has been targeted in what appears to be a cyber-harassment hoax. Photograph: Christopher Polk/Getty ImagesKatharine Quarmby2014-09-26T10:30:00ZHow the web lost its way – and its founding principleshttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/24/internet-lost-its-way-tim-berners-lee-world-wide-web
When Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web 24 years ago he thought he'd created an egalitarian tool that would share information for the greater good. But it hasn't quite worked out like that. What went wrong?<p>In 2009, an American civil rights lawyer created a mashup mapping <a href="http://www.psmag.com/navigation/books-and-culture/the-revolution-will-be-mapped-7130/" title="">a neighbourhood called Coal Run, Ohio</a>. It showed which houses were connected to the town's water supply and which houses were occupied by black or white families. A mashup uses data from more than one source, usually publicly available information, and almost always presents it on a map. The results were extraordinary: the map showed that almost all the white households in Coal Run had water piped to their homes, while all but a few black households did not. Those without piped water had to carry water home from the water plant by whatever transport they could muster, pump it from wells contaminated with sulphur and oil from old mining operations or, in extremis, collect rainwater.</p><p>For more than 50 years, Coal Run's African American residents had called on local authorities to remedy this inequity. Nothing happened except that, during that time, public waterlines spread around Coal Run to new businesses and homes – overwhelmingly to white people's homes. The mashup helped them get what they wanted when it was used as part of a discrimination complaint to the Ohio civil rights commission. But what had changed? Surely the disgraceful facts were already at the complainants' disposal? The answer was that the data could be assembled differently online.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/24/internet-lost-its-way-tim-berners-lee-world-wide-web">Continue reading...</a>InternetTim Berners-LeeComputingFacebookSocial networkingTechnologyComputing and the netMediaSun, 24 Aug 2014 18:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/24/internet-lost-its-way-tim-berners-lee-world-wide-webincamerastock / Alamy/AlamyHave we become patsies whose moods can be altered to boost Facebook’s revenues? Photograph: AlamyCernBerners-Lee demonstrates the world wide web to delegates at the Hypertext 1991 conference in San Antonio, Texas. Photograph: Cern Photograph: CernCatrina Genovese/WireImage'There's this huge corporate pushback' … Tim Berners-Lee. Photograph: Catrina Genovese/WireImageCatrina Genovese/WireImage'There's this huge corporate pushback' … Tim Berners-Lee. Photograph: Catrina Genovese/WireImageStuart Jeffries2014-08-24T18:00:00ZTop 10 science and tech books for July: inventions, Intel and chimpanzeeshttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/15/science-tech-book-reviews-july
From the dangers of machine intelligence to the creation of a global computer giant and the plight of endangered primates<p><strong>Ben Russell</strong></p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/15/science-tech-book-reviews-july">Continue reading...</a>Science and natureBooksComputingTechnologyScienceHondaIntelSolar powerCuriosity roverMarsCultureComputing and the netTue, 15 Jul 2014 13:00:28 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/15/science-tech-book-reviews-julyGettyJames Watt (1736-1819) is best known for inventing the steam engine, but had a much bigger impact on the industrial revolution. Photograph: GettyGettyJames Watt (1736-1819) is best known for inventing the steam engine, but had a much bigger impact on the industrial revolution. Photograph: GettyRahul Rose2014-07-15T13:00:28ZNew Books Party: books received this week | @GrrlScientisthttp://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/may/16/books-mathematics-computing-history
This week is maths week at the New Books Party, so I tell you about three incredibly fun and unusual maths books that will feed your mind.<p>Below the jump, I mention the books that I received recently. They are gifts, review copies that arrived in the mail, or books that I purchased. These are the books that I may review in more depth later, either here or in print somewhere in the world. </p><p> </p><p>There are a number of reasons to learn Egyptian mathematics. Puzzle lovers will find it fun and challenging. History lovers will gain insight into the Egyptian mind-set. However, I believe the most important reason to study Egyptian mathematics is because it is so different. We're taught throughout our entire education that math simply is. We learn laws and memorize steps, never questioning what is laid out before us, for if math is &quot;fact,&quot; how could mathematics be wrong? When you're exposed to a different system, you're forced to reconsider the immutability of &quot;the math.&quot; [...] </p><p>The joy of mathematics has to be beaten out of us by endless drills and subjugation to seemingly arbitrary rules. Perhaps by starting over, this time with Egyptian mathematics, you'll get a fresh chance to revive some of the delight you felt as a child. It's time to get back in touch with the math nerd in us all. (pp. ix-x)</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/may/16/books-mathematics-computing-history">Continue reading...</a>ScienceMathematicsMathematicsBooksComputing and the netFri, 16 May 2014 13:52:48 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/may/16/books-mathematics-computing-historyGrrlScientist2014-05-16T13:52:48ZCurious review – how the internet doesn't help us understand the worldhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/04/curious-review-ian-leslie
Ian Leslie argues that our future depends on developing a deep curiosity about the world – and he doesn't mean clicking on Twitter links<p>It's the paradox of our times. The internet offers us deeper and quicker access to more knowledge than ever before, but there is more and more evidence that this vast, always-on archive is making us lazier, not smarter. Or, as Ian Leslie argues, less curious to develop fact into understanding. And, in his book's doomy scenario, if you become incurious, &quot;your life will become drained of colour, interest and pleasure. You will be less likely to achieve your potential at work or in your creative life. While barely noticing it you'll become a little duller, a little dimmer.&quot;</p><p>Even those who while away hours clicking on links from Twitter are given short shrift: such &quot;diversive curiosity&quot; is just an aimless desire for novelty. What Leslie argues in this timely and readable book, as likely to cite Californian sociologists as Alex Ferguson, is that we need to encourage &quot;epistemic curiosity&quot;, which is deeper, focused and more disciplined.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/04/curious-review-ian-leslie">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netBooksInternetTechnologyPsychologyScienceCultureSat, 03 May 2014 23:04:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/04/curious-review-ian-leslieCtk/AlamyIn Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It, Ian Leslie says that the internet is making us lazier, not smarter. Photograph: Ctk/AlamyCtk/AlamyIn Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It, Ian Leslie says that the internet is making us lazier, not smarter. Photograph: Ctk/AlamyBen East2014-05-03T23:04:00ZThe People's Platform review – an 'invaluable primer' for understanding the networked worldhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/19/peoples-platform-review-astra-taylor-internet
Astra Taylor's study of the internet reveals how our hopes for a brave new democratic world were undone by corporate greed<p>For the first 20 years of the evolution of the internet — from the start of the &quot;internetworking&quot; project in 1973 to the launch of the first major web browser in 1993 – cyberspace (the virtual world behind the screen, as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/williamgibson" title="">William Gibson</a> put it) and &quot;meatspace&quot; (<a href="https://twitter.com/JPBarlow" title="">John Perry Barlow</a>'s term for the material world) were, effectively, parallel universes. Cyberspace was the preserve of a privileged elite – the computer scientists, engineers and graduate students who collaboratively designed and had access to it. And the&nbsp;inhabitants of meatspace were, for&nbsp;the most part, blissfully unaware of&nbsp;its existence.</p><p>The two universes were radically different. For the netizens of cyberspace, meatspace – the world dominated by &quot;<a href="https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html" title="">weary giants of flesh and steel</a>&quot;, declared Barlow – had purchased a one-way ticket to the dustbin of history. Netizens believed that the internet was about to &quot;flatten organisations, globalise society, decentralise control, and help harmonise people&quot;, as <a href="https://twitter.com/nnegroponte" title="">Nicholas Negroponte</a>, the MIT guru, put it. The&nbsp;network would bring about the rise of a new &quot;digital generation&quot; – playful, self-sufficient, psychologically whole – and it would see that generation gather,&nbsp;like the net itself, into collaborative networks of independent peers. And so on.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/19/peoples-platform-review-astra-taylor-internet">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netBooksSocietyBusiness and financeWilliam GibsonInternetTechnologyCultureSat, 19 Apr 2014 20:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/19/peoples-platform-review-astra-taylor-internetShen Hong/Xinhua Press/CorbisThe new reality: the Nasdaq stock exchange’s computerised billboard advertises the flotation of Facebook, May 2012. Photograph: Shen Hong/Xinhua Press/CorbisShen Hong/Xinhua Press/CorbisThe new reality: the Nasdaq stock exchange’s computerised billboard advertises the flotation of Facebook, May 2012. Photograph: Shen Hong/Xinhua Press/CorbisJohn Naughton2014-04-19T20:30:00ZIt's Complicated review – 'online space is teenagers' only public space'http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/24/its-complicated-review-online-space-teenagers-public
This study of teenagers' social networking habits shows that's it's not technology they are 'addicted' to – it's friendship groups<p>Forget the revelations about the NSA: one group in society has been living with surveillance for years. A group whose every move is tracked, whose freedom of movement is prohibited, and whose ability to associate with individuals of their choice has heavy restrictions placed upon it: teenagers. Or at least, the subject of this book: American teenagers.</p><p>It is based on eight years of research by <a href="http://www.danah.org" title="">Danah Boyd,</a> a principal researcher at Microsoft, as well as an assistant professor at New York University. She describes herself as one of the first cohort of teenagers who grew up online in the 1990s (which may or may not explain why she styles herself as &quot;danah boyd&quot;) – and the book is grounded in hard academic research: proper interviews conducted with actual teenagers. What comes across most strongly, more so than the various &quot;myths&quot; and &quot;panics&quot; that the author describes, is just how narrow and circumscribed many of these teenager's lives have become. Policed by their parents, banned, in the US at least, from many open spaces such as shopping malls, not allowed to ride on a bus unchaperoned, online public space is for many of them the only public space they have.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/24/its-complicated-review-online-space-teenagers-public">Continue reading...</a>SocietyChildrenSocial networkingSocial mediaFacebookInternetTechnologyBooksCultureSocietyDigital mediaMediaComputing and the netMon, 24 Mar 2014 09:05:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/24/its-complicated-review-online-space-teenagers-publicAlamyTeenage boys on their phones by Lake Michigan: 'Uptake of technology, is, like almost everything in life, shaped by class, by race, by economic circumstances.' Photograph: AlamyAlamyTeenage boys on their phones by Lake Michigan: 'Uptake of technology, is, like almost everything in life, shaped by class, by race, by economic circumstances.' Photograph: AlamyCarole Cadwalladr2014-03-24T09:05:00ZGeek Sublime review – Vikram Chandra's delightful 'ode to language'http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/23/geek-sublime-review-vikram-chandra-ode-language
Vikram Chandra's exploration of grammar, logic gates and coding is a beautiful, refreshing tribute to text<p>Fiction writer, computer programmer and linguistic gazelle, Vikram Chandra personally hammers home a nail in the coffin of the two-cultures theory with every work he executes. But in his latest book, <em>Geek Sublime</em>, Chandra argues against the beguiling notion that writing code is in itself a truly artistic pursuit. The result is a compendium of delight in which Chandra delves with relish into the bowels of technology and the intricate mechanisms of linguistic suggestion, drawing on his own experiences to create an extraordinary thesis that is part autobiography, part crash course in coding and unfailingly an ode to language.</p><p>Although the numerous extracts he draws together could, at times, benefit from paraphrasing, Chandra's work is far from an esoteric indulgence. For amid the explanations of logic gates, the genius of the grammarian Panini and his Sanskrit rule book, and the beautiful poems of Shilabhattarika, lie truths those within the tech industries would do well to heed. Indeed Chandra is refreshingly blunt in his analysis of the self-perpetuating gender imbalance in Silicon Valley and the relentless pressures of an industry that never sleeps. But above all this is an eloquent tribute to text and its ability to shape our emotions, and rewrite the very world we live in.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/23/geek-sublime-review-vikram-chandra-ode-language">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netBooksPhilosophyLiterary criticismCultureComputingSun, 23 Mar 2014 12:30:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/23/geek-sublime-review-vikram-chandra-ode-languageMurdo MacLeod/Murdo MacLeodVikram Chandra: 'truths the tech industries would do well to heed'. Photograph: Murdo MacLeodMurdo MacLeod/Murdo MacLeodVikram Chandra: 'truths the tech industries would do well to heed'. Photograph: Murdo MacLeodNicola Davis2014-03-23T12:30:01ZWhere did the story of ebooks begin?http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/12/ebooks-begin-medium-reading-peter-james
Peter James's Host, published on two disks, was an early example – but exactly where the medium started life is surprisingly tricky to identify<p>What was the first ebook? Debate rages … When Peter James published his thriller Host on two floppy disks, in 1993, it was billed as the &quot;world's first electronic novel&quot;, and attacked as a harbinger of the apocalypse which would destroy literature as we knew it. Now it has been <a href="http://www.thebookseller.com/news/science-museum-display-james-novel.html" title="">accepted into the Science Museum's collection</a> as one of the earliest examples of the form, as the spotlight of academia begins to shine on the history of digital publishing.</p><p></p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/12/ebooks-begin-medium-reading-peter-james">Continue reading...</a>EbooksTechnologyBooksCulturePublishingComputing and the netComputingWed, 12 Mar 2014 15:05:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/12/ebooks-begin-medium-reading-peter-jamesAllstar/Cinetext/ParamountMoses with some early tablets ... a 1989 hardware edition of the Bible was one of the precursors of today's ebooks. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/ParamountAllstar/Cinetext/ParamountCharlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments (1956). Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/ParamountAlison Flood2014-03-12T15:05:00ZGeek Sublime review – a sceptical take on coding culturehttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/26/geek-sublime-vikram-chandra-review
This is a fascinating book, a kind of techno-artistic memoir informed by Vikram Chandra's ability as both novelist and coder.<p>In 1843, Britain's minister for education announced that every schoolchild in the country would henceforth be given obligatory lessons in the design and maintenance of locomotive engines. &quot;Railways are the future,&quot; he said. &quot;Trains are critical to our economic growth. If our children grow up ignorant of how to build and operate trains, they will be left behind in the global race.&quot;</p><p>Some commentators observed mildly that division of labour and expertise was a more efficient way to run a modern society. Everyone could get around on trains, but that didn't mean everyone needed to know how they worked. Yet the government was&nbsp;adamant. Children had to learn mechanical thinking, it insisted. The new world would be built on the philosophy of pistons.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/26/geek-sublime-vikram-chandra-review">Continue reading...</a>Computing and the netBooksCultureWed, 26 Feb 2014 07:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/26/geek-sublime-vikram-chandra-reviewElisabetta Villa/Getty ImagesBrilliant at technical exegesis … Vikram Chandra. Photograph: Elisabetta Villa/Getty ImagesJuice Images / Alamy/Alamy'The fashionable view is that writing “code” is a crucial skill for everyone'. Photograph: Juice Images / Alamy/AlamyJuice Images / Alamy/Alamy'The fashionable view is that writing “code” is a crucial skill for everyone'. Photograph: Juice Images / Alamy/AlamySteven Poole2014-02-26T07:30:00Z